宗鏡錄 67.13

67.13

Answer: The nature of phenomena is boundless, yet those who attain it make it bordered; the characteristic of tathatā is empty, yet those who cling to it give it shape and obstruction. As the Guan huanyuan says: 'When true emptiness is obstructed in the mind, it constantly serves as a realm of conceptual thought; when the limit of reality is right before one's eyes, it turns into a domain of names and characteristics.' The Qixin chao says: 'If it is mind-only, then there should not be any external objects, because the mind lacks characteristics and cannot be seen. Since there is something seen, how can it be mind-only? The meaning is: because all phenomena arise from the mind, what arises lacks substance and is none other than the one mind. What need is there to speak of seeing and not seeing? It is because the root is mind.' It also says: 'Objects are fundamentally neither good nor bad; it is merely that when they accord with one's feelings, they are called good, and when they conflict with one's feelings, they are called bad. Hence we know that beauty and ugliness follow feelings, and objects have no fixed substance. Since they lack inherent substance, how could there be objects? The gate of mind-only is thereby clarified.' Hence we know that the Buddha speaks for those who have faith, not for those who harbor doubt. When defilements are heavy and hindrances are deep, doubt and slander naturally arise; when obstacles are light and faculties are sharp, one suddenly enters the profound and subtle. The Guang bai lun says: 'All that is seen is made by consciousness. Apart from consciousness, not a single phenomenon is real. Due to the repeated habituation to various views from beginningless time, in accordance with the views one has habituated, the conditions one encounters, and the maturation of one's own seeds, they arise in differentiation, appearing similar to various characteristics of phenomena. Like things seen in a dream, they all appear falsely and none is real. Everything is produced by the conscious mind.'